MLO 3: Secondary Culture
3.1 Students describe concepts of culture and use that understanding in their comparison of the Japanese culture with a second culture other than Japan.
3.2 Students will analyze and make connections between the perspectives, ways of thinking, behavioral practices, and cultural products of a second culture other than Japanese.
My secondary culture class, examined literature. Although some history was occasionally given largely I had to use what I learned in my other classes for a historical perspective, when a historical perspective was needed. Thankfully, in my time here, I also took an Asian American Women's History class, before I took this class, so I was able to largely rely on it when need be. Despite this, this course mostly focused on contemporary Asian American literature, with our oldest book, only from 2000. But we examined many topics in depth, through a variety of forms of literature to gain a broad understanding of the different forms of Asian American life and culture. It was particularly fascinating to compare to Japanese culture in the few moments we encountered a Japanese American poet in our class, either through our podcast assignments, or through the student driven classwork shops. Their concerns were largely different from mainland Japanese experiences, and often influenced by their parents experiences in the internment camps. But it was unique to see the differences in immigrant and second and third generation experiences between the different groups based on country of origin. One of the books we read was On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which was written by the son of a Vietnamese refugee and tells the story of character of the same nature. Though their parents trauma affects both of these groups lives (Japanese American and Vietnamese American), the trauma they experienced were of very different forms and times. It was also interesting to examine the literature of Asian Americans as well as Japanese literature at the same time, since the same semester, I audited--hence why it is not listed elsewhere on this site--a Japanese literature course. The forms of poetry are vastly different, though some sometimes the influence of one may be seen on another as such was the case with one of our podcast authors. I feel like having studied culture from this side of the the ocean, as well as from what is sometimes known as a hybrid culture, I have gained a deeper insight not only into Japanese culture, but my own as well, in a way I could not have achieved without this class.
For evidence, please see Spring 2023's Asian American Literature.
3.2 Students will analyze and make connections between the perspectives, ways of thinking, behavioral practices, and cultural products of a second culture other than Japanese.
My secondary culture class, examined literature. Although some history was occasionally given largely I had to use what I learned in my other classes for a historical perspective, when a historical perspective was needed. Thankfully, in my time here, I also took an Asian American Women's History class, before I took this class, so I was able to largely rely on it when need be. Despite this, this course mostly focused on contemporary Asian American literature, with our oldest book, only from 2000. But we examined many topics in depth, through a variety of forms of literature to gain a broad understanding of the different forms of Asian American life and culture. It was particularly fascinating to compare to Japanese culture in the few moments we encountered a Japanese American poet in our class, either through our podcast assignments, or through the student driven classwork shops. Their concerns were largely different from mainland Japanese experiences, and often influenced by their parents experiences in the internment camps. But it was unique to see the differences in immigrant and second and third generation experiences between the different groups based on country of origin. One of the books we read was On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which was written by the son of a Vietnamese refugee and tells the story of character of the same nature. Though their parents trauma affects both of these groups lives (Japanese American and Vietnamese American), the trauma they experienced were of very different forms and times. It was also interesting to examine the literature of Asian Americans as well as Japanese literature at the same time, since the same semester, I audited--hence why it is not listed elsewhere on this site--a Japanese literature course. The forms of poetry are vastly different, though some sometimes the influence of one may be seen on another as such was the case with one of our podcast authors. I feel like having studied culture from this side of the the ocean, as well as from what is sometimes known as a hybrid culture, I have gained a deeper insight not only into Japanese culture, but my own as well, in a way I could not have achieved without this class.
For evidence, please see Spring 2023's Asian American Literature.